Jimmy's "eagle" trick

[Andromeda]

Here is Jimmy's new trick. It's nothing really fancy but I am so very proud of him because he is a rescue bird and is not very tame. He won't permit touching but I was able to teach him this trick without ever touching his wings or body.



You might notice that he is also lifting his foot... When I first added a verbal cue for this I tried "wings"---but he also knows the "wave" trick! He was confusing the word "wings" for "wave" and started offering a combo of lifting his wings and waving. I quickly changed the cue to "eagle" but he still kind of retained the idea that I was also asking him to wave so about half the time now I get a combo of "eagle" and "wave".

Edited on 2/23/13 to add a better video:

[Eurycerus]

What a good boy! Wow! He's so handsome. :] What methodology did you use? (The foot lifting is adorable.)

I have tried the gently poking in the armpits and Nika is just so confused. We haven't progress at all so I'm going to try one of the other methods that Michael suggests.

[marie83]

Ahh thats awesome, well done.
I'm also interested in hearing about your methods. Harlie does a half bow/wing stretching thing which when I catch her doing it I say "pretty wings" and give her a treat but she hasn't yet caught on.

[Michael]

Very nice!

[janetafloat]

Awesome! I love the way he stretches them right out, clever boy

[Andromeda]

Thanks for the responses and thanks for watching the video! I'm so proud of him.

I think Michael's way is the easiest method but as I am unable to touch Jimmy I had to use a different method. I used capturing and shaping but I'm going to write a more detailed post about the steps I used in the "Parrot Trick Training" sub-forum later in case it is of use to anyone else.

Harlie does a half bow/wing stretching thing which when I catch her doing it I say "pretty wings" and give her a treat but she hasn't yet caught on.

Do you use a clicker? It's possible to teach this behavior without a clicker but it would be far more difficult. A clicker is really useful for several reasons, especially with a trick like this.

1) A verbal cue has no meaning to the bird (at least at first) but if a bird has been conditioned that "click" means "treat" it is very motivated to work for clicks. If it's hearing a click when it lifts its wings it gets excited and will offer this behavior more frequently and over time will offer it repeatedly.

2) A clicker marks the precise moment the bird does the desired behavior. The bird isn't left wondering what it did to get a treat because it knows whatever its doing the very moment it heard the click is what is desired. (And admittedly in the video my timing on the click was too late).

This is extra useful in this case because this trick is (usually) a multi-step process that involves shaping. Jimmy first learned to lift his wings folded, and later learned to stretch them out.

3) A clicker bridges the time between the desired behavior and the treat. It takes a second or two to deliver the treat and if you deliver the treat after the wing lift is over (without using a click to mark the lift) the bird might not understand why it's getting a treat. For all it knows it just got a treat for lowering its wings, because that's the last thing that happened before it got a treat!

If you try to deliver the treat the instant it lifts its wings that's more clear but is also distracting because there's suddenly a hand in its face just as its doing the desired behavior which may interfere with learning.

[Michael]

I'm surprised you had an available wings behavior to be able to capture. Neither of my pois ever lift out their wings like that naturally. They either stretch one wing at a time or do the partial shoulder stretch where they lift both wings but without folding out the primaries. Of course, if the bird naturally does the behavior, capturing is best. But the fact is that many species simply do not do this which is why I wrote how to to teach any bird to show its wings using shaping.

[Andromeda]

I'm surprised you had an available wings behavior to be able to capture. Neither of my pois ever lift out their wings like that naturally. They either stretch one wing at a time or do the partial shoulder stretch where they lift both wings but without folding out the primaries. Of course, if the bird naturally does the behavior, capturing is best. But the fact is that many species simply do not do this which is why I wrote how to to teach any bird to show its wings using shaping.

No, he never fully extended his wings so that was unavailable for capturing. I captured the "partial shoulder stretch" you described and used shaping to get him to extend his primaries. It was somewhat challenging due to the fact that I can't touch him at all, but it took me about three weeks to go from no trick whatsoever to the final product you see in the video.

Your article is excellent and I would have done it that way if he permitted touching.I am working on tameness but that is a very long-term goal for me. He is a rescue and was not very tame when we adopted him but subsequently due to an extended illness that required frequent vet visits over the course of a year he learned intolerance to touching.

In the meantime I do positive reinforcement for other behaviors (he knows target, wave, circle, and now wings) to help build a bond with him and to give him some mental enrichment.

As a final note it was my intention to get him to extend his wings fully above his shoulders, but that's not what he ended up doing when I was using shaping and so I just had to go with what he did offer, which was extending his wings out to his side.

[marie83]

Thanks for the responses and thanks for watching the video! I'm so proud of him.

I think Michael's way is the easiest method but as I am unable to touch Jimmy I had to use a different method. I used capturing and shaping but I'm going to write a more detailed post about the steps I used in the "Parrot Trick Training" sub-forum later in case it is of use to anyone else.

Harlie does a half bow/wing stretching thing which when I catch her doing it I say "pretty wings" and give her a treat but she hasn't yet caught on.

Do you use a clicker? It's possible to teach this behavior without a clicker but it would be far more difficult. A clicker is really useful for several reasons, especially with a trick like this.

1) A verbal cue has no meaning to the bird (at least at first) but if a bird has been conditioned that "click" means "treat" it is very motivated to work for clicks. If it's hearing a click when it lifts its wings it gets excited and will offer this behavior more frequently and over time will offer it repeatedly.

2) A clicker marks the precise moment the bird does the desired behavior. The bird isn't left wondering what it did to get a treat because it knows whatever its doing the very moment it heard the click is what is desired. (And admittedly in the video my timing on the click was too late).

This is extra useful in this case because this trick is (usually) a multi-step process that involves shaping. Jimmy first learned to lift his wings folded, and later learned to stretch them out.

3) A clicker bridges the time between the desired behavior and the treat. It takes a second or two to deliver the treat and if you deliver the treat after the wing lift is over (without using a click to mark the lift) the bird might not understand why it's getting a treat. For all it knows it just got a treat for lowering its wings, because that's the last thing that happened before it got a treat!

If you try to deliver the treat the instant it lifts its wings that's more clear but is also distracting because there's suddenly a hand in its face just as its doing the desired behavior which may interfere with learning.

No Harlie is not clicker trained, the click terrifies her, even if we use at a distance/muffle it. We tried for a long time but it just wasn't worth continuing as she was working herself up too much, since the bridge doesn't have to be a click anyway, you can pretty much use anything. I have to wonder if the click is something that sounds similar to the abuse she suffered in her previous home as she is fine with other loud, unexpected noises.

[Andromeda]

No Harlie is not clicker trained, the click terrifies her, even if we use at a distance/muffle it. We tried for a long time but it just wasn't worth continuing as she was working herself up too much, since the bridge doesn't have to be a click anyway, you can pretty much use anything. I have to wonder if the click is something that sounds similar to the abuse she suffered in her previous home as she is fine with other loud, unexpected noises.

Poor Harlie!

You're right that you can use something else as a bridge. The clicker is just extra useful as it is such a short noise that you can be very precise with it. I was trying to think of something else that could be as precise and I thought what about a service bell?



I know some people use "good" or "good bird" as a bridge but as far as words go that is not the best choice due to the fact that people will usually also say "good" or "good bird" to their bird outside of the context of training--- often without thinking about it!---and at that point it loses its effectiveness as a secondary reinforcer as it is not always/usually followed by a treat. There's nothing wrong with saying those things to your bird during training (I use them all the time) but it's tricky if that's the actual bridge.

If you do use a word a better choice is something that you're unlikely to say to the bird outside of training, such as "right" or "yes" or something along those lines.

I know you've done some training with Ollie, but does Harlie know any tricks? More importantly, does Harlie recognize the bridge (whatever you are using)? If you haven't already done so you can create or strengthen the secondary reinforcer by just having a few days worth of sessions of using the bridge and immediately offering a treat. That way it will really mean something when she hears it as she lifts her wings.

You said that you say "pretty wings" and give her a treat (so in that case it sounds like the bridge) but wouldn't you want "pretty wings" to be the cue (as opposed to the bridge)? I usually don't add a verbal cue until after the bird has started to repeatedly offer the desired behavior in anticipation of a reward.

I don't know if any of this will help but just offering some ideas.